India’s 103 Million NEET Youth Emerge as Political Force Amid Job Insecurity

1 articles · Updated · The Indian Express · Aug 24

103 million Indians aged 15-30 — about 1 in 3 young people — are being cast as a new political constituency as job insecurity and stalled mobility fuel anger beyond class, caste and gender lines.
That discontent is tied to a widening “precariat” of educated and trained youth pushed into contractual, gig and part-time work, while layoffs, automation and flat household wages deepen fears of falling below their parents’ living standards.
August outreach by Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Rahul Gandhi shows mainstream politics reacting after the CJP protests and Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation put Gen Z grievances at the center of debate.
The pressure is broader than unemployment alone: college costs have more than doubled, RBI data points to a middle class priced out of housing, and rising food, transport, education and healthcare costs are squeezing families into precarity.
Unlike youth backlash in China’s “lying flat” culture or the U.S. Great Resignation, the report argues India’s precariat is moving toward confrontational politics that could reshape the country’s political landscape.